Sign-making apparatus



March 2, 1965 R. s. WORMSER SIGN-MAKING APPARATUS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 31,. 1962 ROBERT S. WORMSER ATTORNEY March 2, 1965 Filed 001;. 31, 1962 R. S. WORMSER SIGN-MAKING APPARATUS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR ROBERT 5. WORMSER ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,171,2tl7 SIGN-MAKING APPARATUS Robert S. Worrnser, 49 Salem St., I-Iillsdale, Mich. Filed Get. 31, 1952, Ser. No. 234,361 3 Claims. (Cl. 3323) The invention pertains to sign-making apparatus, and particularly relates to apparatus for producing signs having recessed characters by removal of the material of the member forming the sign.

The forming of signs by removing the material of the sign member whereby letters, numerals, and other characters are defined by a recess, has the advantage of requiring little maintenance and having a long service life. Such signs are attractive and provide a high-quality appearance. The use of this type of sign has found wide application in parks, forests, and other outdoor applications, and is particularly appropriate when used in a rustic environment, as the forming of a sign from a wood of 'the type predominant in the area permits the sign to blend with the environment without detracting therefrom.

Previously, signs of the recessed character type have been formed by hand simply by outlining the characters to be formed upon the sign, and then employing a routing tool to recess the signboard along the outline. While such an operation produces an acceptable sign, the expense of sign manufacture by this method is high and, therefore, limits the use of the recessed character sign.

It is an object of the invention to provide sign-making apparatus capable of producing recessed character signs in an economical and very rapid manner. A further object of the invention is to produce recessed character sign-making apparatus which employs character templates and will exactly reproduce a template upon the sign.

Another object of the invention is to provide recessed character sign-making apparatus which is very easy to set up and install, and which is of a relatively inexpensive and easily manufacturable construction.

An additional object of the invention is to provide recessed character sign-making apparatus which employs a motor driven routing tool and character templates wherein the routing tool may be independently adjusted relative to the templates and a template follower, and the routing tool will accurately reproduce the character of the template.

These and other objects of the invention arising from the details and relationships of the components of an embodiment thereof will be apparent from the following description and accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a front perpective view of sign-making apparatus, in accord with the invention, illustrating the templates and a signboard in position upon the apparatus,

FIG. 2 is a front perspective View of the sign-making apparatus with the router slide tilted in an upward position and the templates and signboard have been removed from the apparatus frame for purposes of illustration,

FIG. 3 is an enlarged, elevational view of the router,

slide structure, and template follower,

FIG. 4 is a partial plan view of a variation of the arrangement of the template holding means whereby a sign having two lines of characters may be set up on the apparatus,

FIG. 5 is an elevational, sectional view taken along section V-V of FIG. 4, and FIG. 6 is an elevational, sectional View of the support members taken along section VIVI of FIG. 4.

The general arrangement of the components of the sign-making apparatus, in accord with the invention, will be appreciated from FIGS. 1 and 2. A frame of rectangular configuration is defined by longitudinally inverted channel members 10, having vertically extending plates 12 welded thereto, and end inverted channel members 14 interconnect the ends of channel members 10 to complete the rectangular frame configuration. Supporting leg members 16 are aflixed to the frame for supporting the frame above the floor at a ,convenient tablelike height.

A plurality of formed parallel support members 18 are afiixed to the frame and extend transversely thereacross, being connected at their ends to the channel members 10. The support members 18, preferably, are evenly spaced along the channels 10, except at the channel ends where a pair of support members is located in adjacent relation for the support of the guide shaft bracket, as will be later described. The cross-sectional configuration of the support members 13 will be apparent from FIG. 6, wherein the members are so formed as to be of a hollow configuration, having a slot 20 defined by inwardly projecting flanges 22. This construction permits nut members 24 to be located within the support members, prior to connecting the members to the frame. The use of the nut members 24 will be later apparent. The support members 18 define an upper surface 26, and as all of the surfaces 26 of the support members are coplanar, a planar sign and template-holding member surface is provided by the surfaces 26. V

A plurality of sign-clamping members are mounted on the frame interposed between the plates 12. The clamping m'embersin the illustrated embodiment, consist of cylindrical rods 28 having a threaded end which extends through the front plate 12, i.e., the plate 12 illustrated in FIG. 5. Wing nuts 30 attach to the threaded ends of the support members '18 and bear upon the front plate 12 whereby rotation of the wing nuts 30 will draw the rods 28 toward the associated wing nut. The plates 12 are provided with appropriate holes to support the rods and permit this axial sliding action. An adjustably positionable clamping element 32 is mounted upon each rod 28, and includes an abutment surface 34 which extends above thesign-supporting surface defined by't-he support member surfaces 26. The elements 32 are provided with means for releasing and fixing the element upon the associated rod whereby the element may be located at any axial position upon the rod. The elements 32 may be of a conventional form such as used in woodworking gluing clamps and the like.

A pair of guide shaft end support brackets 36 is mounted upon the adjacent support members 18 located at the ends of the frame. Bolts 38 extending through the bottom plate of the brackets 36 associate with nuts within the support members, in the manner similar to that shown in FIG. 6, to firmly afiix the brackets to the frame. A cylindrical, linear guide shaft 40 is supported at its ends by the brackets 36, and this shaft is of an accurate smooth-exterior configuration.

A carriage 42 is mounted upon the shaft 40, and includes a cylindrical portion 44, having an axial bore 46 through which the shaft 40 extends. Preferably, antifriction bearing means are located within bore 46 of the type which will permit the carriage to be very easily axially translated upon the shaft 40, and also permit the carriage to be pivoted or tilted about the axis of the shaft 40.

The carriage 42 includes an upper portion having a pair of spaced, tubular, parallel portions 48 afiixed thereto. The tubular portions 48 each include an axial bore 50 in which antifricton bearing means are preferably installed whereby the bores 50 receive cylindrical shafts 52 for axial slidable movement therein. The bores 50 of the portions 48 are preferably perpendicularly disposed to the axes of the bore 46 and the guide shaft 40.

The cylindrical shafts 52 will normally be of greater length than the width of the frame and serve as the support for a router mounted thereon. The router mounting means and shafts 52 constitute a slide and include a pair of brackets 54 having bores 56 defined therein for receiving the shafts 52. The brackets 54 are adjustably affixed to the shafts 52 by set screws 58, or the like, intersecting the bores 56, and adapted to engage the shafts. A vertical bore 60 is defined in each of the brackets 54 which .are also intersected by a set screw, and the bores 60 each receive a vertically disposed router bracket support column .62. The lower ends of the columns 62 are attached to the router support plate 64 which has a central opening therein whereby a routing tool motor may be'mounted upon the plate 64, having a tool 68 which extends downwardly through the opening defined in the plate. By means of the set screws, not shown, within the brackets 54 intersecting the bores 68, the columns 62 may be adjustably positioned relative to the brackets to raise and lower the routing tool relative to the shafts 52. Also, the routing t-ool motor apparatus preferably includes an adjustment which permits limited raising and lowering of the tool 68 relative to the router motor housing and plate 64, whereby the depth of cut of the router tool may be very quickly and easily adjusted.

The front ends of the shafts 52 are received within the caps of a template follower bracket 70 which extends between the shafts. The template follower bracket includes a portion having a vertically disposed bore 72 defined therein for receiving the template follower 74. The template follower 74 is of a cylindrical configuration having a pointed end 76 which may be received within the character indentations of the templates, as will be later apparent.

The template holding means are mounted upon the surfaces 26'of the support members 18 adjacent the front plate 12. The template holding means consist of a pair of elongated brackets 78 being recessed at 80 to provide a template-receiving surface and defining a shoulder 82. The brackets 78 are disposed in parallel relation and by means of bolts 84, cooperating with nuts within the sup port members 18, may be amxed upon the support member surface 26.

The character templates are in the form of rectangular, planar, plates 86, a single plate being employed with each character whereby thedesired word or lettering may be formed by a plurality of templates much in the same. way printing type is set. The templates 86 are provided with an upper surface having the desired character formed as an indentation or recess therein, and the cross-sectional configuration of the template character indentation is preferably substantially complementary t-o the configuration of the pointed end 76 of the template follower. Blank templates may be employed to produce spacing between words, as will be apparent from FIG. 1. After the tem plate plates have been located upon the surface 80 of the template-holding brackets 78, one of the brackets 78 may be shifted toward the other to grip the templates between the shoulders 82 of the brackets and, thus, maintain the templates in the desired position upon tightening the bolts 84.

The sign member employed with this type of apparatus usually consists of a rectangular board 88. The board 88 is placed upon the support surfaces 26 of the support members 18 intermediate the brackets 7 8 and shaft 40, and abutment brackets 90 are located upon the support members against which the signboard 88 is abutted. The abutments 90 include an abutment surface 91, FIG. 5, and a horizontally disposed portion 92 through which a bolt 94 extends for cooperation with a nut member 24 within the support member 18. Thus, the abutment bracket 90 maybe located as desired upon the support members, and usually these brackets will be disposed adjacent the template-supporting bracket 78 nearest the shaft 40, as illustrated. As the signboard is usually provided with a linear edge, the brackets 78 will normally be relatedfso A that the abutment surfaces 91 thereof align in a common plane.

The signboard 88, after being placed upon the surfaces 26, is positioned against abutment surface M. of the abutment brackets 90, and the clamping elements 32 are then positioned upon the clamping rods 28 whereby the surfaces 34 will engage the signboard edge opposite to that engaged by the abutment brackets 98. Thereupon, tightening of the wing nuts 36 will draw the rods 28 and elements 32 toward the abutment brackets 96 to tightly clamp the signboard 88 between the elements 32 and brackets $0.

The operator then grasps the template follower bracket 70 with the left hand, and the template follower 74 with the right hand, and after the router motor 66 has been started, the carriage and router slide structures are pivoted from the position of FIG. 2, which permits the apparatus to be set up, to the substantially horizontal position of FIG. 1, wherein the end 76 of the template follower is engaging an indentation of a character template 88. Prior to starting the motor and producing the cutting action, the operator adjusts the position of the template follower 74 with respect to the extension from the bracket 70, and adjusts the extension of the tool 68 through the plate 64 in accordance with the thickness of the signboard which is to be used and the depth of cut desired. Thus, these prior adjustments permit the cutter of the routing tool to produce the desired depth of cut when the template follower is within the indentation of the template characters. With router constructions having independent cutter depth adjustments, the tool 68 may be withdrawn toward the motor until the follower engages the template, and then after the motor is started the tool may be lowered relative to the motor to provide the desired cut. This sequence of operation insures that the initial cut taken will align with a tern plate character recess.

Thecutting of the sign characters consists merely of maintaining the template followers point 76 within the template character indentation and tracing the character indentation with the follower. The tracing action of the apparatus is easily accomplished due to the fact that the carriage 42 employs antifriction bearing means between the shaft 40 and the shafts 52 and, thus, the router and template may be easily moved in any direction. As the linkage between the router and the frame permits linear and compound linear movements, the routing tool 68 will describe an exact replica of the template character being traced. To move the template follower from one character to the next, the router slide components are raised, as in FIG. 2, and the carriage 42 is translated along the shaft 40 until the follower 74 aligns with the next template character to be traced. The slide components are then again pivoted to a substantially horizontal position to resume cutting the sign characters.

In FIGS. 4 and 5 template holding means are disclosed which permit two rows of templates to be mounted simultaneously upon the frame for cutting a sign having two rows of letters. In this arrangement a central template bracket 98 is employed having a recessed surface disposed on each side of a raised portion 100 which defines shoulder 82'. The shoulders 82' will be in opposed relation to the shoulders 82 of template holding brackets 78, and bolts 84' permit the bracket 98 to be afiixed to the support members 18. The templates 86 are thus supported on brackets 78 and 98 in the manner described above, and two line signs may be intially set up on the apparatus of the invention.

In employing the structure shown in FIGS. 4 and 5,

the signboard 88 must be of sufficient height to accommodate the two lines of lettering. The adjustable mounting of the shaft brackets 36 upon the members 18 permits adjustment of the apparatus to accommodate various size signs and increases the versatility of the device. The use of the quick-acting elements 32 and the positionable abutments 9t permits various sizes of signboards to be 23 readily accommodated, and also permits multiline signs to be formed using only a single line of templates, as in FIG. 2. In this arrangement it is only necessary to reposition the board 88 relative to the templates or to shift the brackets 54 upon the shafts 52, to change the spacing between the follower 74 and router tool.

The templates 86 may be very quickly located within the template-holding brackets 78, and the clamping of the signboard and the other adjustments necessary to set up the machine are easily accomplished. Recessed character signs may, therefore, be very economically and quickly produced on the apparatus of the invention. The actual cutting of the characters may be accomplished in a matter of seconds and, thus, the apparatus makes widespread use of recessed character signs economically practical. By employing different shaped routing cutters, the shape of the character recess may be varied, and by raising and lowering the routing tool 68 relative to the follower 74, the depth of the recess may be quickly adjusted.

It is understood that various modifications of the invention may be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope thereof, and it is intended that the invention be defined only by the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. A sign-making apparatus comprising, in combination, a frame, a sign-support surface defined upon said frame, character template-holding means mounted upon said frame adapted to receive a template, an elongated cylindrical guide shaft mounted upon said frame disposed above said sign-support surface, a carriage slidably mounted upon said shaft translatable in the axial direction thereof and pivotally mounted upon said shaft for rotation about the axis of said shaft, a pair of parallel shaft-receiving portions rigidly supported upon said carriage transversely disposed to said guide shaft, a pair of spaced, parallel shafts axially slidably received within said shaft-receiving portions, a motor driven router tool, adjustable means mounting said router tool upon said parallel shafts for adjustable movement parallel to said shafts, said adjustable means including means for adjustable movement of said router tool transverse to said shafts, said router tool extending toward said sign-supporting surface and a template follower mounted upon said parallel shafts, said router tool and template follower being located on a common side of said guide shaft.

2. In a sign-making apparatus as in claim 1, wherein said template-holding means is mounted upon said signsupporting surface wherein templates received by said holding means are disposed parallel to said sign-supporting surface.

3. A sign-making apparatus comprising, in combination, a frame, a sign-support surface defined upon said frame, character template-holding means mounted upon said frame adapted to receive a template, an elongated cylindrical guide shaft mounted upon said frame disposed above said sign-support surface, a carriage slidably mounted upon said shaft translatable in the axial direction thereof and pivotally mounted upon said shaft for rotation about the axis of said shaft, a pair of parallel shaft-receiving portions rigidly supported upon said carriage transversely disposed to said guide shaft, a pair of spaced, parallel shafts axially slidably received within said shaft-receiving portions, a motor driven router tool mounted upon said parallel shafts and extending toward said sign-supporting surface and a template follower mounted upon said parallel shafts, said router tool and template follower being located on a common side of said guide shaft, a plurality of support members having a channel-like configuration and having abutment fastenerreceiving means defined'therein mounted on said frame transversely disposed to said guide shaft and having an upper surface constituting said sign-support surface, an abutment positionably mounted upon each of said support members by fastening means associating with said support members fastener-receiving means, sign clamping members mounted upon said frame having sign-engaging elements extending above said sign-support surface and in opposed relation to said abutments, and means adjustably translating said clamping members and elements toward said abutments.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,142,585 6/15 Lane 3323 1,389,462 8/21 Spreadbury 13.1 1,810,995 6/31 Woelk 269- 1,904,623 4/33 Malcolm et al 3323 2,551,953 5/51 Larson 3325 2,782,024 2/57 Demmer et al 26623 2,796,665 6/57 Cossock 33-23 2,881,521 4/59 Pearson 3325 ISAAC LISANN, Primary Examiner.

ROBERT L. EVANS, Examiner. 

1. A SIGN-MAKING APPARATUS COMPRISING, IN COMBINATION, A FRAME, A SIGN-SUPPORT SURFACE DEFINED UPON SAID FRAME, CHARACTER TEMPLATE-HOLDING MEANS MOUNTED UPON SAID FRAME ADAPTED TO RECEIVE A TEMPLATE, AN ELONGATED CYLINDRICAL GUIDE SHAFT MOUNTED UPON SAID FRAME DISPOSED ABOVE SAID SIGN-SUPPORT SURFACE, A CARRIAGE SLIDABLY MOUNTED UPON SAID SHAFT TRANSLATABLE IN THE AXIAL DIRECTION THEREOF AND PIVOTALLY MOUNTED UPON SAID SHAFT FOR ROTATION ABOUT THE AXIS OF SAID SHAFT, A PAIR OF PARALLEL SHAFT-RECEIVING PORTIONS RIGIDLY SUPPORTED UPON SAID CARRIAGE TRANSVERSELY DISPOSED TO SAID GUIDE SHAFT, A PAIR OF SPACED, PARALLEL SHAFTS AXIALLY SLIDABLY RECEIVED WITHIN SAID SHAFT-RECEIVING PORTIONS, A MOTOR DRIVEN ROUTER TOOL, ADJUSTABLE MEANS MOUNTING SAID ROUTER TOOL UPON SAID PARALLEL SHAFTS FOR ADJUSTABLE MOVEMENT PARALLEL TO SAID SHAFTS, SAID ADJUSTABLE MEANS INCLUDING MEANS FOR ADJUSTABLE MOVEMENT OF SAID ROUTER TOOL TRANSVERSE TO SAID 